Fr. Frank Pavone on McCullen v. Coakley – Massachusetts Law Violates First Amendment in Order to Further Violate the Right to Life

Priests for Life

1/15/2014

STATEN ISLAND, NY -- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, said the case of McCullen v. Coakley, which is being argued today before the U.S. Supreme Court, illustrates how “abortion perverts justice.”

“They violate pro-lifers’ First Amendment free speech rights in order to protect the profits of abortionists who violate the right to life of unborn babies. They are a wrong committed to perpetuate another wrong.”

“It’s plainly discriminatory for the government to say that abortion supporters can speak freely at a given place, but pro-lifers cannot,” added Fr. Pavone. “Then again, bubble zone laws and abortion are based on the same illicit notion, namely that some people have rights and some people don’t.”

In McCullen v. Coakley, the plaintiffs are challenging a Massachusetts law that bars pro-life sidewalk counselors from coming within 35 feet of an abortion clinic entrance.

Fr. Pavone added, "When a person has a reasonable chance of saving a life, it is not only morally permissible to break the law regarding the bubble-zone, but it is virtuous to do so. If this law is not struck down, I'll come and violate it myself."

Priests for Life is the nation's largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org.